Host and Producer of First Voices Radio

"I can't let go of the ancient ways It's in the blood I can't let go It's in the blood"

"We have to stop with the idea of creating peace on earth and begin with creating peace with Mother Earth. We've tried the first alternative for thousands of years, but look where that has led us, now is the time of the Original Ways, the Native ways, after all ... it is coming this way - that we all must make peace with Mother Earth - there is no more altering the native way."

Tiokasin is available for concerts, lectures and other speaking engagements.

TIOKASIN GHOSTHORSE — Cheyenne River Lakota Nation of South Dakota—is an international speaker on Peace, Indigenous and Mother Earth perspective. A survivor of the “Reign of Terror” from 1972 to 1976 on the Pine Ridge, Cheyenne River and Rosebud Lakota Reservations in South Dakota and the US Bureau of Indian Affairs Boarding and Church Missionary School systems designed to “kill the Indian and save the man,” Tiokasin has a long history of Indigenous activism and advocacy. He spoke as a 15-year-old at the United Nations - Lake Geneva, Switzerland. He is an active board member of Simply Smiles, Green Cross International, and The Center for Earth Ethics. Tiokasin speaks frequently at venues such as Yale University’s School of Divinity, Ecology and Forestry focusing on the cosmology, diversity, and perspectives on the relational/egalitarian vs. rational/hierarchal thinking processes of Western society. Tiokasin was a 2016 Nominee for a Nobel Peace Prize from the International Institute of Peace Studies and Global Philosophy. Selected for2016Native Arts Cultural Foundation Fellowship, anda Nominee for a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship 2018, National Native American Hall of Fame Nominee 2018, and 2019 Indigenous Music Award Nominee for "Best Instrumental Album" for "From the Continuum."

A master musician and a teacher of magical, ancient and modern sounds, Tiokasin performs worldwide and has been featured at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Apollo Theatre, and the United Nations, as well as at many universities and concert venues. Tiokasin serves on boards of several charitable organizations dedicated to bringing non-western education to Native and non-Native children. Tiokasin is “a perfectly flawed human being” and a Sundancer in the cosmology of the Lakota Nation.

Tiokasin's Curriculm Vitae is available upon request.

His words of Indigenous insight and global concern are offered through the experience of "one Lakota living in one world".

~ Mitakuye Oyasin

Tiokasin is a working board member and/or an advisory member of the following non-profit organizations:

SIMPLY SMILES(www.SIMPLYSMILES.org) On the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Reservation in South Dakota, there exists poverty on a staggering scale. As our first domestic endeavor, Simply Smiles is honored to have been welcomed into this community and to be able to support these incredible children and their families. You too can be involved with sustaining an emerging culture.

Green Cross Sweden- International Ambassador and Honorary Board Member (/www.gcint.org) Green Cross is to respond to the combined challenges of security, poverty and environmental degradation to ensure a sustainable and secure future. We seek solutions through dialogue, mediation, and co-operation. To achieve this we:

Promote legal, ethical and behavioral norms that ensure basic changes in the values, actions, and attitudes of government, the private sector and civil society, necessary to develop a sustainable global community;

Contribute to the prevention and resolution of conflicts arising from environmental degradation;

Provide assistance to people affected by the environmental consequences of wars, conflicts, and man-made calamities.

First Voices Radio (FVR) 27 Years of Indigenizing and Re-Indigenizing Radio, Nationally and Internationally Syndicated is the first "Indigenous" radio program in the northeastern states of the U.S. and the world offering a cutting-edge format. FVR brings to the airwaves the experiences, perspectives, and struggles of Indigenous peoples worldwide whose exclusion from the mainstream, progressive and alternative media is deleterious to the whole of humanity. Our purpose is to help ensure the continuance and survival of Indigenous cultures and Nations by letting “the people” tell their own story, in their own words, and often in their own languages and ways of speaking. FVR educates and informs, while breaking down the romanticization, historical and current stereotypes, and begin to form real relationships with Indigenous nations and communities, based finally, on respect and real understanding.

This one-hour is devoted to bringing the voices of the Indigenous peoples connecting their struggles with those of other Indigenous Peoples around the world.

Those of us in the media supposedly seek the truth. Or what we deem to be the truth. But what or who defines our truths? How responsible are we journalists to purport the truth to our readers, our viewers, our listeners? How dependent are audiences on our versions? Do we inspire them to search out their own truths, or do we influence so well that we leave no room for doubt? However, how do we know which points are valid? What colors our visions? Are there non-Indians and Indians who can relate to the news concerning Indigenous information without bringing into play embedded stereotyping; distorted images portrayed repeatedly by the media for decades? Is there a way to present the truth and still maintain that Indigenous people are not of the past, not second-class citizens and incorporate a belief that our lives are of interest to the general populace? Of course! However, where can we find the every-day truths concerning worldwide indigenous issues? Not just from the so-called “western” hegemony of "Indigenous, Native American, American Indian, or Aboriginal" writers, but from the people living, doing and relating themselves to terra firma with intact culture, languages, and perspective.

Western compulsory [Euroamerican] education has taken its toll and in some aspects, educated the wisdom out of the Indigenous mind and has brought to the forefront a rationale explained in foreign concepts unrelated to the lands it pretends to have conquered. The experience of the Native person who lives the voice of Mother Earth has to encounter a different paradigm of western reasoning based on denial of the Indigenous thinking process. How do we see ourselves in systematic western institutions based on the disenfranchisement of "killing the Indian [thoughts] and saving the [American] man"? Much of today's radio programming is written by non-Indigenous people, and the programs presented by Indigenous peoples are often edited, either by tribal governments, churches or non-Indigenous producers. There is definitely a need for an innovatory talk radio program where the average Native can present his or her viewpoint without feeling pressured to curb perspective. First Voices Radio airs weekly and is syndicated on 81other national and international radio stations with features focusingon the world's Indigenous peoples. FVR is heard on other Pacifica affiliates, pirate radio stations, and archived for re-broadcasts.